Adore Thy Neighbor | Kylo Ren X Reader

Chapter One

The day you walked across the stage, accepted the book that would hold your degree that had been mailed to you the month before, and said goodbye to the University of Tennessee for good, was the day you felt like your hope would never die. You had spent the last six years of your life working toward your degree day in and day out, accumulating thousands of dollars of student debt and barely staying afloat while managing your education, your personal life, and family life all at once. By the time you were packing all of your stuff out of your dorm for the last time and returning home to your parent's house in Franklin, you were already planning what your next move would be.

Your mother would playfully argue with you day and night about putting your degree in Public Relations to good use in Los Angeles. That was where all of the best of the best celebrities were, after all. You always had the same response, and that was simple:

"Mom, all of the celebrities being there means all of my competition would be moving there too," You'd moan as she'd roll her eyes. It was true, though. You wanted nothing more than to help notable people look and act their best for the media. You and several others from your graduating class had heard whispers that several of your classmates also had the idea that moving to L.A. would be the best course of action. Just imagining how many applications would be sent in for one job opening in L.A. made your head spin because it wouldn't just be people from your graduating class, but from other colleges all around the world. You wanted to be different, to stand out as much as you could.

There would be no Chicago, no New York City or San Francisco. Instead, you looked at places such a Colorado, Texas, and D.C. You had a goal of making it out of your parent's house in under two years. It was a generous time period, and you found that, after the first year that you remained unemployed, you were thinking you'd need to extend your stay. By now you had already picked up a full-time job as a secretary in an elementary school just so you could have your own income, and you were becoming worried. You knew it was rare for someone in your field of study to get a job straight out of college, but you were still just as discouraged. It seemed like every day you were applying for any job you could. Jobs in Tennessee and the surrounding states, jobs in smaller states like in Delaware for companies and other firms, and you even applied to jobs in California like you had argued so hard not to. At this point, you were just trying to make something out of the degree you worked so hard for. You would take anything you could get your hands on, really.

Phone and virtual interviews came and went, flights out to Arizona and Michigan were completed for in person interviews, and the closest you ever got was meeting with a camp that needed help advertising for the summer. It was an animation camp in New York, and it would pay you so well for the summer but they passed you up for a much older woman with way more experience than you had. It was tragic, and returning home to Tennesee with your hands empty was more defeating than you thought. Your parents told you to chin up, that you'd always be welcome in their house until you decided otherwise. You accepted their offers, but still slunk off to your room with an intense urge to cry. Your flight had gotten in at 11:30 at night, and by the time you made it back to your room you were ready for bed. Wiping your face free of any stray tears you undressed and made your way under your heavy comforter. Tomorrow would be better. You just had to keep the faith.

You closed your eyes tight and tried to sleep, but the all important pinging noise from your phone indicated you had gotten an email and your eyes instantly went wide open. You contemplated leaving it until morning; after the day you had you weren't sure you could handle another rejection. You closed your eyes again, perfectly content in ignoring the jingle in favor of sleeping. The thought hit you that perhaps it would be better to check it now rather than in the morning when you could be facing a huge disappointment, but you still thought better of it. The least you could do was end your day with the satisfaction that you weren't being rejected again.